You are free: one day in a mosque divorce court

Amra Bone, a female sharia judge, at home in CoventryTimes Newspapers Ltd

It was a divorce hearing — but not as most people know it. A speedy succession of women came before the Sharia judges and told of how husbands had deserted or cheated on them, how they could not see their children or, in one case, that the marriage was unconsummated. Within minutes, each was granted a “divorce” certificate and told they were free to move on with their lives.

This was a regular hearing, to which The Times was granted rare access, at Birmingham Central Mosque, where up to ten such cases a day might be heard, twice a month. The three-strong panel — the UK’s first woman Sharia judge, Amra Bone; Talha Bukhari, a mufti or Muslim legal expert; and Usman Mahmood, an imam — sat…